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‘Mass Effect 3′ finally draws to a close with ‘Citadel’ the final DLC for BioWare’s space opera.

The thought that occurs to me as I watch the Citadel DLC trailer (below) is that this feels like a real good-bye. There’s some trailer-y stuff at the beginning, and then right at the end we glimpse a scene of the entire crew of the Normandy posing for a group photo.

It’s obviously not the end of the game—in that weird way that DLC bends time, the end occurred long before this content was made. But it has that sense that actually yes, this is the end—the real end of the story for Commander Shepard and friends.

That’s fitting, of course. This is the final single-player downloadable content pack BioWare is making for this story arc. Though there is a Mass Effect 4 of some sorts in the works, it won’t be Shepard’s story. It’s weird, also, to say good-bye in the middle. Then again, perhaps the middle isn’t the worst place to say good-bye given the backlash to the actual game’s ending.

For my part, I think the whole “Shepard, you need a place to call your own” idea is a bit silly. I mean, I realize that Shepard’s always made time for a little romance in his or her exploits, but full-blown R&R while Earth is being blown to pieces? That’s stretching the boundaries of plausibility just a wee bit.

That being said, this does makes me want to play more Mass Effect. I’m actually playing through the entire trilogy again and will be blogging my exploits as I go. Not sure if I’ll make it to all the DLC,but so far I’m enjoying the first Mass Effect more this time around.

I think I’ve grown more patient with story-driven games for some reason. I suppose it’s all the JRPGs I’ve been playing lately. You really have to be patient to get through the opening of Persona 4 Golden, after all.

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A Place he already have – the Normandy. Some Suite in the Citadel just don’t Fit to be a Home in my Opinion, simply because the Normandy always was Home since ME1 for me. But thats just my Opinion, and its nothing wrong with having a Suite here and there, but calling them Home sounds strange.

And the DLC… well, I didn’t want Support ME3 because of the End, so I didn’t Buy any DLC. I don’t plan on changing that, because the End too has not changed. And Yeah, it sounds very strange having some Party and fun while Reapers kill People every Second.

I would need to read WWZ to get an idea of how appropriate it is handled and how it would compare to ME’s narrative.

The concept isn’t lost in what’s being said about being “on” all the time, it’s the context of scale that’s challenging the suspension of disbelief in exactly how “off” you should really be getting. It was already being pushed in the main game but it was hardly the stories biggest fault (sort of). This DLC has you throwing a house party before the assault on the Cerberus Base and if it’s to my understanding, after Thessia Temple. It’s hard to swallow that this is the best time to be screwing around.

I just want to start by saying this; Erik, I really enjoy your articles. Thank you for writing them. Now as far as I am concerned I don’t know if I want to buy DLC from a company that has dropped the ball more than once and lied to its customers. Here is an example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gu731UtTFqo&list=FLnAESa5UE-zGMTZFOR8iRNA&index=2 But unfortunately for me I am a completionest. I’m going to want all the DLCs when I can get them.

I haven’t been supporting the game since the EC came out, so I will hardly be downloading this, but it again strikes me as bizarre they can try and shoehorn yet another side quest into the game when time is supposed to be of the essence… Yes it will be a proper goodbye and more character interaction that people wanted, but I would have thought people would like it to make sense at the same time?

I suppose some people can compartmentalise the game, into nice bits, and nasty bits, and stop playing before the ending or something, or write their own epilogue, but thats just not me I suppose. Its really not worth the effort, and safe to say trading in all 3 games the other month was the most satisfying £11 I have ever earned…